So, here in the UK, the third-to-last episode of 24 just aired on BBC Three. (Note to Mike Myers/Austin Powers fans – yes, there are four BBC TV mainstream channels now, two on free digital services. Other channels are kids and news, so yeah, you could claim BBC Heaven if you wanted to.)

Anyway, 24 plays a week early on BBC Three, 10.45pm on Sunday nights, straight after the previous week’s episode on BBC Two @ 10. (No ads, no logos, digital widescreen feed, lovely.) After BBC Three’s 24 showing, there’s another show, Pure 24, just to discuss the episode that’s just aired. They have exclusive interviews, snippets of the upcoming week, and talk with the guests and studio audience. Viewers ring or email their opinions in. Fun for obsessives, and followed by the excellent Adam and Joe Go Tokyo.

So what’s this got to do with me? Well, they read out something I emailed in. Which is nice. Spoilers, so select the following text to read it:

When Jack talked Kim through killing the abusive murderer, she truly became Daddy’s little girl. Fantastic.

It was a tense, breathtaking moment in 24, and though I’m very much against guns, murder or the death penalty in real life, we know this guy is extremely nasty, it’s self-defence, and most crucially, it’s fiction set in America. So woo-hoo! Bad man go bye-bye!

Yeah, I know, they’re supposed to be kids books, and the first two in the series pretty much are. But 3/4/5 are fun, engaging fantasy reads. Page-turners without being crap bestselling paperbacks. Well written SF/Fantasy can be pretty addictive, and when I was a kid I used to go through a lot of books. One week over summer holiday saw the first and second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant devoured. And this last week reminds me of those long-gone happy days.

Video game censorship in Australia? Yes. Film censorship in Australia? Yep, been going on for years. This latest episode is over a Ken Park film. Go for it Margaret P.!

Actually, the UK has historically been even worse; nunchakus — two wooden rods connected by a metal chain — were banned outright in film and tv until the 1990s in the UK. Only in 2001(!) has Enter the Dragon been released uncut here. Follow this page at Melon Farmers and find for “nunchaku” for more detail.

Nothing against farmers, or the poor bastards who work in slaughterhouses. If you have to protect your animals against predators, then fine. But if you enjoy the process of firing a gun at a deer, a fox, a bear, whatever; if you raise dogs to rip small animals apart… Sorry, but if you enjoy killing, you’ve got mental health issues.